Paleography and A Historical Case Study

Importance of "paleography" for the study of history.
Latin alphabet used in medieval manuscripts.
Paleography can lead to new historical discoveries.
From the study of a few medieval manuscripts we can start to understand the nature of religious interrelations in medieval Spain

Virtual Plasencia

A view of "La Mota" neighborhood inside of Virtual Plasencia.

What is Paleography?

the study of ancient writings and inscriptions
an ancient manner of writing; ancient writings
We can then appreciate that the term is both
(1) the academic investigation of older forms of handwriting as well as
(2) the actual handwriting itself.
For our purposes, we will use the term "paleography" to describe the process of interpreting and recognizing letters and numbers in our primary sources (the manuscripts).

Introduction to Paleography: Handwriting from the 13th Century (PDF)